mate. It is impossible to conceive that any nation, in whatever circumstances they might be placed, could depart, in so remarkable a manner, from the idioms of their native language. But supposing that there were some affinity in any one of the languages of North America to the Hebrew, still it would not prove that the persons who speak it are of Hebrew descent. The Arabic and the Amharic have very strong affinities with the Hebrew: but does it thence follow that the Arabs and Abyssinians are Hebrews? Admitting, therefore, the fact of this affinity, in its fullest extent, the only legitimate inference would be, that the languages of America are of oriental derivation, and, consequently, that America was peopled from Asia. To pursue this subject further, would occupy too much time upon a point which is merely subsidiary. But I cannot forbear remarking, that, while the nation of Israel has been wonderfully preserved, the Indians are nearly exterminated. The nation of Israel will hereafter be restored to the land of their forefathers; but this event must speedily arrive, or the unhappy tribes of America can have no part in it. A few years more and they will be beyond the capability of migration! The question, then, with regard to the immediate origin of the American Indians, must remain in the uncertainty which hangs over it. Nothing but a more extensive knowledge of the languages of this continent, of those of Northern Asia, and of the Islands in the Southern Pacific, can throw any additional light upon a problem, which has so long exercised, and so completely exhausted, the ingenuity of conjecture. Their religion furnishes no assistance in the solution, for it cannot be identified with that of any particular nation, in any other portion of the globe; and though resemblances, and those very strong and striking, can be traced, yet they are such as are common to the great family of man, and prove nothing but that all have one common origin. Previous to the dispersion of the descendants of Noah, the knowledge of the true God, of the worship which he required from his creatures, and of the sanetions with which be enforced his commands, must have been common to all. It is impossible to conceive of any distinction where all were equally related to him, and possessed equal means of instruction and knowledge. In a word, the whole of mankind formed one universal church, having the same faith and the same worship. How long this purity continued we know not, nor when, nor where, idolatry was first introduced. That it began, however, at a very early period, we have the strongest evidence; for Terah, the father of Abraham, was an idolater, notwithstanding the precepts and example of Noab, both of which, for more than a hundred years, he personally enjoyed. We may account for it from that tendency in our nature which seeks to contract every thing within the compass of our understanding, and to subject it, if possible, to the scrutiny of our senses. A Being purely spiritual, omniscient and omnipotent, is above our comprehension, and we seek, by the multiplication of subordinate deities, to account for the operations of his power, When this is done, the imagination feels itself at liberty to clothe them with corporeal forms; annd from this idea, the transition is not difficult, to the formation of idols, and the introduction of idolatry. But notwithstanding this departure from primeval purity, the religion of mankind did not at once lose all its original brightness. It was still the form of the archangel ruined. It did not reject the worship of the true God, but seems only to have absurdly combined with it the worship of inferior divinities. When Abraham sojourned at Gerar, the king of that country had evidently communications with the Al less and the timid have been frightened out of their good principles by his caustic sarcasm, while to the rashly bold and ignorantly daring, the eyes of the judgment have been blinded by the coruscations of his wit. VOL. II. B mighty; and the testimony which God gave of the integrity of his character, and his submission to the divine admonition, clearly prove that he was a true believer.* At a subsequent period, when Isaac lived in the same country, the king, a descendant of the former monarch, requested that a covenant of friendship should be made between them, because, as he observed, Isaac was the blessed of Jehovah.† "This," as Bishop Horsley remarks, "is the language of one who feared Jehovah, and acknowledged his providence."+ When Joseph was brought before the king of Egypt, both speak of God as if they had the same faith, and the same trust in his overruling providence.§ Even at so late a period as when the Israelites entered Canaan, the spies of Joshua found a woman of Jericho, who confessed that " Jehovah, the God of Israel, he is God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath."* The book of Job presents an interesting view of the patriarchal religion as it existed in Arabia; and, it will be remembered that in Mesopotamia, Balaam was a prophet of the Most Higb. These instances are sufficient to show how extensively the worship of the true God prevailed, and that it had not become extinct even when the children of Israel took possession of the land of promise, and became the peculiar people of Jehovah. That it was blended, however, with the worship of inferior divinities, represented in idolatrous forms, is equally apparent from the sacred history. When the servant of Abraham had disclosed to the family of Nahor the purpose of his mission, both Laban and Bethuel replied: "The thing proceedeth from Jehovah; we cannot speak unto thee bad or good."¶ This reply was an evidence of their faith in the true * Gen. xx. 3, 4, 5, 6. See also xxi. 22, 23. † Gen. xxvi. 28, 29. Horsley's Dissertation on the Prophecies of the Messiah, dispersed among the Heathen, prefixed to Nine Serm. p. 41. New-York, 1816. 8vo. Gen. xli. 25, 32, 38, 39. Josh. ii. v. 11, ¶ Gen. xxiv. 50. God; yet it afterwards appears that the same Laban had images which he called his gods, and which were regarded with veneration, and greatly valued by himself and his children.* Upon the occasion of Jacob's departure to Bethel, he commanded his household to "put away the strange gods that were among them." These gods must have been numerous; for it is men. tioned that "they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and he hid them under the oak by Shechem."+ Even the chosen family, therefore, was not exempt from the infection of idolatry. But this was idolatry in its milder form. The progress of corruption among mankind soon introduced a grosser and more malignant species. The worship of the invisible Creator was at length forgotten; His seat was usurped by fictitious deities; and a general apostacy prevailed. Quis nescit qualia demans Egyptus portenta colat ? Porrum et cæpe nefas violare, aut frangere morsu. Then it was that the Almighty was pleased to give the nations over " to a reprobate mind," and to select a peculiar people, to be a signal example of his providence, the witness of his wonders, and the guardian of that revelation with which he sought to check the waywardness of human corruption. 1. Having thus seen that all false religions are, in a greater or less degree, departures from the true; that * Gen. xxxi. 19. 30, 32, 34, 35. + Gen. XXXV. 2, 4, Who knows not to what monstrous gods, my friend, The mad inhabitants of Egypt bend? -'Tis dangerous here To violate an onion, or to stain The sanctity of leeks, with tooth profane. O holy nations? Sacro-sanct abodes! Where every garden propagates its gods!-GIFFORD. there is a tendency in the human mind, to form low and limited views of the Supreme Being; and that, in fact, all nations have fallen into the corruptions of polytheism and idolatry: we should conclude, even in reasoning à priori, that the religion of the Indians would be found to partake of the general character. Accordingly, the fact is amply attested, that while they acknowledge one Supreme Being, whom they denominate the Great Spirit, or the Master of Life, they also believe in subordinate divinities, who have the chief regulation of the affairs of men. Charlevoix, who had all the opportunities of obtaining information which personal observation, and the united testimony of the French missionaries could give, is an unexceptionable witness with regard to the Hurons, the Iroquois, and the Algonquins. Nothing, says he, is more certain, though at the same time obscure, than the conception which the American savages have of a Supreme Being. All agree that he is the Great Spirit, and that he is the master, creator, and governor of the world.* The Hurons call him Areskoui; the Iroquois, by a slight variation, Agreskoué. He is, with them, the God of war. His name they invoke as they march. It is the signal to engage, and it is the war-cry in the hottest of the battle.t * Charlevoix, Journal, &e let. xxiv. p. 343. t Charlevoix, Journal, &c. let. xxiv. p. 344. "Il paroit que dans ces chansons (de guerre,) on invoque le Dieu de la guerre que les Hurons appellent Areskoui, et les Iroquois Agreskoué. Je ne sçai pas quel nom on lui donne dans les langues Algonquines. Mais n'est il pas un pen étonnant que dans le mot Grec AAgus qui est le Mars, et le Dieu de la guerre dans tous les pays, où l'on a suivi la Théologie d'Homere, on trouve la racine d'où semblent dériver plusieurs termes dela langue Huronne et Iroquoise qui ont rapport à la guerre? Aregouen signifie, faire la guerre, et se conjugue ainsi : Garego, je fais la guerre; Sarego, tu fais la guerre ; Arego, il fait la guerre. Au reste, Areskoui n'est pas seulement le Mars de ces peuples; il est encore le Souverain des Dieux, ou, comme ils s'expriment, le Grand Esprit, le Créateur et le Maitre du Monde, le Génie qui gouverne tout: mais c'est principalement pour les expéditions militaires, qu'on l'invoque, comme si la qualité, qui lui fait le plus d'honneur étoit celle de Dieu des armées. Son nom est le cri de guerre avant le combat et au fort de la mélée: dans les marches méme on le répete souvent, com me pour s'encourager, et pour implorer son assistance." Ibid, p. 208. |